Contents

Plot

In this mission you have to steal a Blista Compact and take it to a lockup. When Niko Bellic enters Comrades Bar, Vlad asks him to go on a walk with him to his car nearby. On the way he shows his displeasure for tramps and homeless people by shouting at them for no reason or pushing them. When the two reach Vlad's Marbelle in a car park, Vlad takes out some coke (said to be mixed with laxatives) who he says got from someone called Mikhail. He then tells Niko that Mikhail has a problem with a guy called Jimmy. Jimmy isn't paying his debts recently, so he wants to show him he means business. He wants Niko to take his car, which is parked at the East Island City projects in Dukes. He then tells Niko to use the subway to reach there.

Mission objectives

In order to complete the mission the player must:

Go to the subway station.

Go up to the station platform.

Wait for the train to arrive.

Find an take the silver Blista Compact.

Take Jimmy's car to the lockup.

Take Jimmy's car to the wash.

Now take Jimmy's car to the lockup.

Enemies

Walkthrough

Take the marked train at Hove Beach station that heads to Dukes Boulevard station; once at Dukes Boulevard station, go down the stairs. Get the silver Blista Compact, which is just nearby. If you get the chance, greet Jimmy with a stun punch by surprise and take his car, prompting one of Jimmy's mates to pursue you. Engaging Jimmy and his friends is optional; if you simply get in the car and drive away fast enough to not be pulled out of the vehicle, you'll encounter no resistance for the rest of the mission (unless you time the snatch poorly and a police vehicle spots you in which case the usual evade procedure needs to be followed, except without the option of ditching the stolen car.)

Once in the car, Niko then calls Vlad, saying that the car is dirty. Vlad then tells Niko to take the car to a car wash nearby, then take it to his lockup. It costs $5 for a car wash, so after it's sparkling clean, drive it to Vlad's lockup.

Video Walkthrough

Deaths

Trivia

One of the purposes of this mission is to teach the controls for the stun punch, except the on-screen instructions might not appear until after you've left the scene (and either dealt with Jimmy or ignored him and just drove away).

After taking the silver Blista Compact, Niko will call Vlad and tell him that the car is dirty and can fuck it up more worse than a little dirt since Vlad complains he cannot sell a dirty car, saying "I know your cousin likes a dirty car! Maybe your whole yokel family drives around in their dirty cars, but it's not the way over here."

Dialogue will be affected if Niko chooses to stun punch Jimmy, simply take the car or drive away, or kill him. Niko may say that Jimmy was "a little bruised but he gave it up easy enough" if the player stun punched him, or "It was easy, I didn't even have to hurt the guy" if the player drove away, or "He was reluctant. He's dead now" if the player killed him.

Curiously, the train you ride as part of this mission drops you off at the Dukes Boulevard station, which is supposedly closed for maintenance. At no other point in the game will a subway train stop at or even pass through this station. Neither will the player see the train actually stopping at the station, as the game cuts off from the cinematic sequence of the train moving towards Schottler station and switches to the player simply being at the station.

While the game prompts the player to head to the Hove Beach station, it is actually not necessary to take the train; alternatively, players may simply drive or take a taxi to the EIC projects, to which point the game will pinpoint the location of the car. However, as the game does not originally point out where the Blista Compact is parked, first-time players may not know of the car's location and will naturally take the train instead.

The train will not move until Niko gets inside of it.

If Niko goes to the wrong platform, he will be instructed to go to the right platform.

The mission is one of the only places of the game where the stun punch works. The player can also punch the bouncers at Perestroika with the stun punch.

If the player fails to stun Jimmy using a stun punch, both Jimmy and his accomplice will become aggressive and attempt to fight Niko.

If the police see Jimmy or his friend attacking you, they will shoot them instead of trying to arrest them.

After stealing the car, the player can do whatever they please with the car, so long as it is clean and is not destroyed (which leads to mission failure). This means that the player can choose to deliver the car clean and undamaged, or even present it as a clean but damaged wreck.

Although Vlad tells the player to wash the Blista Compact at a car wash at Beechwood City, players may use any car wash in the city (a second car wash location will appear on the map to the north of Beechwood). Alternately, players can have the car resprayed at a Pay 'n' Spray for the same effect which may be worth considering if Niko attained a wanted level.

After delivering the car, Vlad will call Niko regarding "a hot date" (presumably with Mallorie) where he drives the Blista Compact Niko has stolen. Depending on the condition of the car, Vlad's call will differ. If the car is delivered undamaged, Vlad will mention that Niko did well "for a peasant" and will also say that the car should impress his date. Niko will return that she would not be impressed by his appearance, so the car would help. If you damage the car enough (all windows broken, tires flattened, engine producing dark grey/black smoke) before parking it, Vlad will call you complaining that the car "was a piece of shit". Niko will retort that "the car was clean, wasn't it?" and hang up.

Sometimes if you use patch 1.2, Niko will not call Vlad and the garage door won't open so the mission cannot be completed. To resolve this problem is to reinstall the game.

In the video on the GTA IV website for Vlad shows part of the cutscene for this mission. He walks in the street and yells at the driver of a unique black taxi. This could mean that the taxis were originally meant to be black or were black in the beta version.

In the starting cutscene where Vlad is drinking in Comrades Bar, seated beside him is the laundromat owner whom Niko talked to in Hung Out to Dry.

During the cutscene where Niko and Vlad are walking to his car, Vlad is nearly hit by a taxi and yells "I'm walking here!" at the driver. This is a reference to the scene in Midnight Cowboy where Dustin Hoffman is almost hit by a taxi and yells the same phrase. This is also seen in Back to the Future Part II, where Martin McFly Junior is almost hit by a car while crossing the street and yelled the same phrase repeatedly.